On This Day, May 9, 1974: Bruce Springsteen declared ‘rock and roll future’

On This Day, May 9, 1974 …

A 24-year-old Bruce Springsteen opened for Bonnie Raitt at the Harvard Square Theater in Boston. Rock critic Jon Landau was in the audience and was so impressed that in a review for Boston’s The Real Paper he wrote these famous words: “I saw rock and roll future and its name is Bruce Springsteen.”

Landau and The Boss struck up a friendship, and he was eventually hired by Springsteen as a record producer. His first album with Bruce was 1975’s Born to Run, with Landau co-producing all of Bruce’s albums through 1992’s Human Touch and Lucky Town, with the exception of 1982’s Nebraska.

Landau later became Springsteen’s manager, a position he holds to this day. Their relationship will be depicted in the upcoming film Deliver Me From Nowhere, with The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White playing Springsteen and Succession’s Jeremy Strong playing Landau.

And Springsteen, of course, proved Landau’s words true. At age 75, he is still on tour, with his The Land of Hope and Dreams tour with The E Street Band kicking off May 15 in Manchester, England.